Exit polls 2012: How President Obama won

A solid showing among his key ’08 demographic constituencies —coupled with a small dose of economic optimism — and a feeling that Mitt Romney was out of touch with the middle class helped propel President Obama to reelection, according to exit polling conducted Tuesday.

Compared with the results four years ago, Obama was able to maintain his leads among women, young voters, African-American voters and Hispanics in his campaign against Mitt Romney.

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After all the discussion of Obama’s play for women — and his effort to make Romney appear extreme on women’s issues — the president won among female voters by 12 points. He took 55 percent of the demographic, compared with 43 percent for Romney — not far off from 2008, when he won women by 13 points.

In particular, the president won big among unmarried women, who backed the president by a whopping 38 points, 68 percent to 30 percent.

But unlike 2008, when Obama won men by one percentage point, the president lost men to Romney this year. He took 45 percent of their vote, compared with 52 percent for Romney, according to the exit polls.

Obama prevailed among the two minority groups that supported him in large numbers in 2008: Latinos and African Americans.

Ninety-three percent of African-American voters backed Obama, while just 6 percent who backed Romney. Turnout among the demographic remained steady at 13 percent of the overall electorate.

Obama’s support increased with Hispanic voters: he won 69 percent of the demographic, compared with 29 percent for Romney. That 40-point deficit is slightly higher than his 36-point victory among Hispanic voters in 2008.

And the president saw higher backing among Asian voters, who sided with him by a 49-point margin, 74 percent to 25 percent. The margin was 27 points in 2008.

Although he again lost Protestant voters to his GOP opponent, Obama held onto his advantages among Catholic and Jewish voters. He won 70 percent of the Jewish vote, down from 78 percent in 2008, and he won Catholic voters 50 percent to 47 percent. Romney carried Protestant voters by a 13-point margin, 56 percent to 43 percent.

While Obama’s previously huge margin among 18 to 29-year-olds dropped slightly – he won the age group by 34 points in 2008, compared with 24 points this year — the overall turnout was up slightly among young voters, certainly a factor in his victory.

Like McCain, Romney won older voters: he took 51 percent of 45- to 64-year-olds and 55 percent of voters 65 and older.